The Strangest 

Things

by Harry Palmer

When people arrive at some understanding through shared experiences, their words echo with the same meanings. They chatter happily within their own little group without any misunderstandings. Outsiders may still struggle to understand, but within the group there is an easy accord.

With Avatar there is a twist. The Course creates such a foundational experience of life that there are no longer outsiders. An alignment in consciousness develops that echoes our unity.

Tune in on the conversation between two new Avatar graduates and you'll notice there is a rapid disintegration of any complexity that interferes with comprehension. It's most remarkable. Whole areas begin unraveling into their fundamental ideas and beliefs. It's very contagious!

More than once the eyes of uninitiated bystanders have popped open in amazement at the things Avatars routinely discuss over lunch.

More people arrive and the lunch turns into a forum. The headwaiter, Ira, assumes the role of master of ceremonies and explains to the late arrivals. "They were talking about the fundamental rhythm of the universe!" Ira is a bit frantic but completely lovable. He draws an exaggerated wave pattern in the air with his hand. "It's like breathing. You inhale and you exhale, right?"

'Uh-huh," one of  the Avatars nods.

Ira barges around the table, putting the lunching Avatars between himself and the arriving crowd. He holds his hands out, left palm up, right palm down and then flips them back and forth. "You can't do one without the other." He nods at the Australian and makes a quoting motion, "It's like creation and experience. Creation is an exhale." He demonstrates by blowing. "Then you've got to inhale." He sucks in air with a whistle. "You've got to experience what you created. If you resist experiencing, you lose your breath and stop creating."

"It's perfect karma," someone in the crowd adds. The club sandwiches on the table remain untouched.

"Yeah, yeah," Ira says, "it's like a balance scale." His hands go up and down shifting invisible weights. "But this is the neat part," he makes his quoting nod toward the lady from Belgium. "When the resisted experiences build up, they become an energy that creates things in your life. They take over." Ira shields himself from an imaginary attack from the ceiling.

The crowd laughs and offers examples: "Out of control." "Like a habit."

"Yeah, but get this," Ira says. "The resistance is the energy that viruses feed on! Tell 'em. Resistance attracts diseases. It'll do you in!"

He goes back to waving his hand up and down and then spots the light switch near the door. "Life is a back and forth rhythm--on and off--it's on and off, on and off." He demonstrates by blinking the lights and this brings the attention of the rest of the people in the restaurant to the table.

"It can be...like running in place." Now, not only Ira, but several people in the group demonstrate running in place. "It's vibrating in place," Ira plants his feet and shakes his whole body. "Brr-r-r-r-r-r-r." Everyone laughs.

"Then sometimes, life moves forward like a wave. Create, then experience, then create--but here's the really neat part. You've got to hear this. At one level--what did you call it'?"

"Density?" says the Avatar Master. "That's right, density. In one density you're like riding the wave of life forward. Cosmic surfing! Create, experience, create. And as long as you stay on the board and don't start resisting, you're learning how to surf better."

"Hang ten, dude."

Ira begins flicking the lights again. "When you start resisting, you just create the same thing over and over. Do you know why?"

Everyone present knows it is a rhetorical question.

"Because it's the resisted creation trying to work itself out. And it's just on and off, on and off, on and off. Right? Lifetimes even, right? You're a king who resists beggars and then a beggar who resists kings, and then a rich man who resists poor men, then a poor man who resists rich men...

"A yuppie who resists street people," someone tries to add.

"Yeah, back and forth. No progress. The world changes but you just go back and forth like a light switch. Until--get this--until you experience with APPRECIATION what you've been resisting!" Ira pauses for a moment allowing this to sink in.

"Even if you are resisting," he makes quotation marks with his lingers, "experiencing the lack of something you desire, you have to appreciate the lack. Then you start to go forward. Right?"

"Absolutely!" Several people are shaking their heads in agreement.

"Yeah, you've got to listen to these guys explain it. It just makes so much sense. Every time you create something and then appreciate the experience of it, you get smarter for the next time you create. What was that you said about labeling things? Oh yeah, it's when you label something instead of experiencing it--get this--you create consciousness!"


 Ira strikes a saintly pose. "Before you  resisted, you're just aware, experience things directly and know all about them."

The man holding the bill leans forward toward Ira. "This is the Avatar stuff, right'?"

"Right! These guys are Avatars. Listen, this is so good. At the same time you're riding the wave of life, creating and experiencing, there's another YOU! It's above the wave like the sun. And it just watches."

"Like a higher self? Like God. Far out!"

Ira helps himself to the pickle garnishing one of the uneaten sandwiches. "Okay," he pounds his head. "Let's see, what else did you say? Oh, oh, this is the best. You've got to tell them the guru story. You know how the disciple is always climbing the mountain to ask the guru what the purpose of life is? And the guru says something heavy like," Ira adopts his best Deepak Chopra accent:
"to seek the purpose is the purpose. The group applauds Ira's story.

"Do you want to know the purpose of life?" He pauses for dramatic effect.

"When you stop resisting and you begin to move forward on the wave of life-where's it going? It's getting simpler, smoother, right'?"

"So the purpose of life is to create something simpler, more efficient and of higher quality than what exists."

"A better mouse trap!"

Ira removes the club sandwiches and wipes the table with a napkin. "That's what nature is doing, creating things simpler, more efficient and of higher quality than what exists. That's the secret of Avatar. Am I right, guys?"'

"You're right, Ira."

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